August 26, 2025 • 46 mins
King and Starks carry on the conversation going trough position groups discussing those making and not making the final 53-man roster.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Am taking Max. Hup Max you there we lost Max.
That is the that is the signal that we are
that we are approaching the power hour. And uh so
(00:29):
we are. We're approaching the power hour. That's uh Maximus
Prime or whatever that what what is it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Optimist Prime? Get it Get it right, Rob, get it right.
This Optimist Prime has broke Kid of the eighties.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Optimist Prime.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He is Optimist Prime. Everybody else got a big rig
guy that's optimist Optimist from here on out.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, so uh yeah, okay, So where were we optimist
the Power Hour?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's right, the Power Hour engaged our number.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Two Welcome back inside the locker room of King and Starks,
presented by our neighborhood Fords Store. Here in the Steelers
Audio Network went through the cuts on defense and where
the Steelers stand right now with the roster at thirty
one players, all of whom we like that are still
as of now, as of this moment, I'm the Steelers roster.
So let's get to the special teams, because that is
(01:22):
the one area that does appear to be set for
the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And I think.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
One of the ones that also made me pause, not
that I thought it was at all. The wrong decision
was the punter position. So the contract of Cam Johnston
was terminated and Corless Weightman. You know, Max, we saw
a lot of practices, we saw the games, and they
set this up as a competition. So Cam Johnston looked
(01:50):
incredible last year in camp. He has a long pedigree
of being a really successful NFL punter. But honestly, if
you set two guys up head ahead, if you didn't
know who was the pedigreed punter and who was the
guy who came in last year Off Waivers In had
a nice season for you, you just said here they are, uh,
pick one.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I can't disagree with the choice.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I thought Corlus Weightman had a terrific camp, and I
thought he showed up during the games.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now, and I'm right there with you. I think this
was one that you know, it was a tough decision, right,
you know you you'd brought Cam Johnston in to be
to be your punter long term, and like you said,
I mean Corls Weightman came in and all he did
was boot the ball, give you great hang time and
give your team an opportunity to be successful and to
(02:39):
and to and to win and so you know, with
that it was a straight up battle. They they literally
split the difference, right, you know, they went straight up, Hey,
we're gonna go punt for punt here and give give
everybody the opportunity, you know, to play and put your
best foot forward. And you know, Corli's weightman won that job.
(03:00):
And I think that was something that you know, was
was was was a decision by the team and it
was a fair contest. I mean, it's one of the
few I say, you know, it's a fair one. Corlis
Corliss did a better job than Cam when it came
down to it, and you know, we we were in
punter excess. But once again, this was also when we
talk about the depth, because there's nothing that Cam Johnston
(03:21):
did wrong, right, you know, there was nothing that he
did that was that was bad or he wasn't terrible.
It's just it came down to, you know, head to head.
The guy coming off of injury wasn't as clean as
a guy who was who was who was who was
healthy the whole year. And that's literally how it happened sometimes,
you know, and you know, we always talk about the
(03:42):
Wally Pips of the world, and you know we give
all of these other analogies, but this is this is
what it looks like. This is the reality of it.
So nothing against Cam. I loved Cam. I thought Cam
had a great leg. I mean especially a year ago.
I mean he was booming punts. But you're coming off
of injury, so it's it's tough get back in that groove.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And again, you know, we talk about decisions that are
made and you know the sliding scale of things and
where are you as a team, what do you need
as a team? You know, is Cam Johnson back one
hundred percent?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But I also don't want to take anything away from
cordless weightment because he was twelfth last year in the
NFL and net punting and as we know, that's that's
not easy to do in Pittsburgh. You have conditions to punting.
You're not punting in a dome, you're not punting in
warm weather where the ball is going to travel easier
and better.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And we could say the same thing about the kicker.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That's why that that's why I think, you know, we
agree we take Chris Boswell over anybody else in the
game because he has to kick under conditions that other
kickers don't have to. And even with that, the numbers
are still great. You know, the numbers are still as
good as any winning in the league. So you have
weightment in Boswell and Christian Kotz. No other guys were
cut yesterday as part of that. So that's that's one
(05:00):
area of the team. As we sit here right now,
that's set. You're gonna have a punter, kicker, special teams.
You're three special teams guys at those positions.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
That is set.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
We can write three down and I'm doing this right
now as we talk. I'm putting three down, Max, and
I'm circling it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, Okay, that's the only three we have. We have
fifty more to go.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So we have thirty one on defense, we have three
on special teams, and the three are set and the
thirty one are not set.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Right, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So let's take a look at a couple of different
positions here on offense. Let's start with the tight end position.
And you know this was interesting to me because JJ
Gallbreath came in. He was he showed up in mini
camp and OTA's and all that stuff and.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Really look good. Really turned heads again.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I think he's a guy on a different roster that
maybe ask different things out of their tight ends, a
different roster that isn't so deep at that tight end position.
He might be a guy that you would keep and say, hey, listen,
we we see a lot here. Let's keep this guy.
He seems to me again to be a guy you
(06:11):
would love to stash on the on the on this
the sixteen man practice squad. I don't know whether that's
gonna happen or not, but your thoughts on JJ Galbreath,
who was the lone tight end who didn't make the
roster them will discuss the tight end position.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I thought JJ, you know, he showed a lot of flash,
a lot of ability. I think the biggest thing was,
you know, when you're coming in, you already have a
lot of guys who who do similar things. And I
think that's kind of where he fell, you know, a
little bit by the wayside, so to speak, because we
(06:47):
we do have that guy who who can who can
play off the ball, right, We do have a guy
who can who can separate in the slot. And for JJ,
he brought a similar skill set, So it was like, okay,
did we go with the guy with the similar skill
set that that fits it with everybody else, or do
we look for somebody who offers something a little bit different.
(07:09):
And I think that's ultimately what played into the JJ
decision was that he did a lot of things good,
but he had a very similar skill set to the
guys we already had on the roster and guys who
are more experienced.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So as we look at the tight end position, this
is the one position we've got to gotten to max
where I'm pretty sure this is set. Like, I'm not
positive they'll keep five outside linebackers or five inside linebackers.
I'm not positive about that. Eight cornerbacks. I don't I
don't think so. I think Pat Fryarmouth, John euy Smith,
(07:44):
Darnel Washington, and Connor Hayward.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I think they're making the roster all for them.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The Yeah, yeah, there's there's no question about that. Yeah,
that's one position, easy.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's one position we think we've nailed the.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Set it and forget it. Okay, forget it.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So no moves made at the quarterback position. So that
means right now we have Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, will Howard,
Skyler Thompson. Now we saw Will out there with a
pinky injury throwing some footballs in pregame warm ups down
in Carolina on Thursday. We also saw Skyler Thompson come
(08:23):
in and once again look sharp at the quarterback position.
Again to refresh people's memories, not only is this the
guy who has started games in the NFL, but this
is the guy who started in a playoff game in
the NFL. Skyler Thompson has some pedigree on his resume.
So I feel very confident in saying, well, I should
(08:45):
you know, I fairly confident in saying because you don't
know for sure, fairly confident in saying this number will
wean from four to three and somehow in some way
by the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Today, Yes, it will one way or another. You know,
you kind of play a little bit of that cat
and mouse game with with other teams trying to figure
out if if there's a utility. Think about what just
recently happened to a guy by the name of Kenny Pickett,
(09:18):
which I'm sure everybody knows. Kenny was traded to the
Las Vegas Raiders, and so you're trying to see if
there is an additional value for a guy who can
come in and help your team immediately. And I think
that's kind of what you kind of wait at. You
you want to wait this out to the very last minute.
You don't want to be presumptive. You don't want to
(09:41):
throw it in ahead of time. It's like, hey, maybe
maybe there's a value here, Maybe there's there's sub opportunity
to be able to move you know, a guy like
a Skylar Thompson, you know, before the trade deadline, because
teams are going to get desperate, teams are going to
have injuries. This is a part of the game, and
this is also part of the gamesmanship inside the game.
(10:03):
So I'm not surprised that that that that they're holding
on Scalar times. They're not just releasing him out right
this early because there is a value to him.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Or you know, are you thinking about, as some have suggested,
potentially saying, look, we don't have to make this decision now.
Will Howard hasn't been able to practice in a couple
of weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We still feel.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Very strongly about him as a developmental quarterback. We certainly
don't want to put him on IR for the rest
of the year. Well, again, that's this is some people thinking.
I'm not saying this is what the Steelers are thinking,
but you know, if we put him on the IR now,
he's lost for the for the season. But if we
put him on the IR today is one of these
two special designation spots, then he's out for four weeks.
(10:48):
We make sure he's healed, he can at least witness practice,
and then we can make our decision.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Then he's got what twenty one days to come back. Yes, yeah,
so you know you can kick this decision, you know,
down the road for another almost two months.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
The other thing, too, is that, you know, I think
that for a lot of other positions, that would be
undesirable losing practice time, right, you want guys out there. Yeah,
but I'm not sure how many snaps your third quarterback
gets in practice.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
He is all of the quote unquote scout developmental scout
team reps potentially, and that's about it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right. Yeah. So it's one position in which.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, uh, maybe you could consider saying, hey, if
somebody standing there the baseball cap on watching things, observing practice,
sitting in meetings, doing that kind of things, he hasn't
lost that much. I don't know, Max, I don't know
what decision is going to be made. I just feel
pretty sure that there's not going to be four quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
In the roster.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, Rob, I don't I
don't see the space for four, but I do see
kind of the vision, uh that that you're showing, and
that Yeah, this this is an opportunity. You know, potentially
if if you need that extra time with Will Howard
to get him healthy, you know, you can stash him
(12:20):
so to speak. You can you can put him on
you can put him on on the uh on the
on the short term I R and uh, and you
can still keep a quote unquote a four fourth quarterback
for now and then like you said, that decision comes later,
maybe a trade comes. A lot of other things can happen.
I mean, it's not a problem to have those guys,
(12:42):
and and there is a creative way. And once again
we do not know, but it is a smart way
to look at it that you had that potential because
Will Howard is injured, because he's not healthy, he did
not play any snaps in the preseason games. So if
you if you want to go with the trusted, tried,
tested and true type of emergency third Skylar Thompson did
(13:05):
everything you could ask him to do and more, and
he wouldn't be a bad guy to have as your
third option. And you allow Will to kind of heal,
like you said, he can still see, he can still view,
and then you kind of keep him and you don't
have to put him out there for waivers and put
an exposed into potentially losing him after you after.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It again, yes, get it, get it, get it, understand it.
But let's think about all the other players who are
dinged up and we don't know the full extent because
injury reports don't have to come out until I think
next week. Yeah, week one, right, so also dinged up
to in some way, shape or form that we know of.
(13:45):
And I might be missing some guys here, but your
top swing tackle, backup tackle, Calvin Anderson, your number one
pick on the defensive line, Derek Carmon, Corey Trice, Dante Ken,
Beanie Bishop. Will throw Will Howard into this list as
lung as we're listening. That's six. I think I feel
(14:05):
like I'm missing one or two guys. That's six guys.
Remember that this extra roster maneuvering that we're talking about
you can only do it with two guys. So just
pointing that out that, yeah, you know, we can't just
say oh yeah, I just do that because there are
other just like there are other factors to concern yourself,
special teams, and where does he fit in and and
(14:28):
you know, what is our goal with his team? And
you know, how is this position going to affect who
we keep at the end of the roster and so
on and so forth. These decisions are are are linked
in with other decisions that need to be made. So
just keep in mind that, you know, we can say
that and that may wind up happening, but that also
(14:49):
may wind up costing potentially costing somebody else's spot on
the roster too. So because you can't, you know, that's
one less position you could potentially use for that fifty
fourth and fifty good guy who you can put on
short term.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
My arm.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, now, it definitely does. And like you said, I mean,
this is this is this is the gamesmanship. You've got
to figure out something you know, and also potential you know,
if you wave a guy injured, that's another thing that
you have to consider. Waving a guy injured in those
moments is a tough is a tough type of way
to to kind of calibrate it because, like you said,
(15:25):
there's more interest in our spaces. Plus you also have
to consider, you know, what guys have shown and what
they haven't shown. You know, I think for Dante Kent
a lot of potential, but you haven't seen it live.
You haven't seen it, so you know, is that potential greater,
you know, than what you might have in somebody else.
(15:45):
That's the decision making process that's going to go through
this is can I risk letting this guy go for
the future value that he may have? And that plays
a big role into it as well. And I think
we'll see that as we get closer to that four
point thirty pm Eastern Standard time designation time for everybody
(16:06):
to cut, and does that player offer something against the
field because this is happening in thirty one other places
as well, right and there's gonna be some teams that
let go of some good players, just like the Steelers
are doing that could potentially help your team, and you
don't know that yet until we get to that time.
So that's what you're also waiting because you're fifty three,
(16:28):
still not set and you're looking at these guys and
you know, and there's also you have to think about this,
there's a waiverclaim priority rob as well that I don't
think a lot of people are aware of that when
we say we're putting a guy on waivers. I think
a lot of people just hear, oh, you're just letting
them out there and anybody can pick them up. No,
there's a priority list. So you know, teams that have
(16:52):
that had higher draft picks, you know, designations, and the
priority that also slots. So we could say that, you know,
we could come and get a guy, you know, from
another team, but if there's a team that has a
higher waiver priority, you still lose out on that guy. Yep,
that's right, and then it slots as you claim. So
(17:15):
there's this other mechanism that's an effect for a competitive
balance that also comes into play when you're saying you're
putting a guy on waivers, because five teams can put
a waiver claim in and the highest priority gets that guy.
So you could still lose it just because they say, oh,
I'm gonna go get I don't know, just a random guy.
I'm gonna go get Julius Welshoff, right, you know, because
(17:37):
he because he's released. No, but if four of the
teams put in for Julius Welshoff as well, guess what,
Julius Wellshoff is going to the team with the higher priority.
And that's how it's going to play.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's easy when it's just apples to apples, right, I'm
the only one that puts a claim out for him,
and I get him. That's that's an easy traditional way.
But every team, thirty two teams are scouring and everyone's
putting in waiverclaim priority on all these players because they
want to get them. Because what you see thirty one
other team see from the Steelers perspective, and that's the
(18:13):
other game that.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
You have to play for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And that deadline is coming up on Wednesday, August twenty
seventh at noon. So tomorrow today's Tuesday, right, yeah, tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Mark away Wednesday, December Wednesday, August you mean tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, come tomorrow at noon.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Jeez, that's the time. You know, all these waiver claims
have to be put in and again you know, uh,
you say to yourself normally, you know, later draft choices,
you know, maybe Carson Brunner, maybe Dante Kent. Maybe you
can get him onto the onto the practice squad. Well
maybe you can't. Maybe there's a team like I just
(18:56):
saw the projected win totals for teams, and look, teams
aren't sitting there and saying, wow, the you know, the
athletic put out their projected win totals, we're not going
to be very good, so let's go on this course
of action. But teams are self aware of where they are.
If you're a team and you're like, look, man, we
are rebuilding now, new coach, new GM we're cleaning guys out,
(19:18):
you might just be sitting there in the waiver wire
being like, okay, we can get It's like getting an
additional draft. Picking this last draft. You're waiting around for
other teams to cut their sixth and seventh round guys,
guys that you might have had a draft greade on
and you might just be waiting to scoop them up.
You might have fifty three guys on your roster right now,
and you might be letting eight of those guys go
(19:40):
because you're in full scale rebuild mode. So you know,
but fans just sort of saying, wow, we'll get on
the practice squad. Hey, hold on, now, these are all things,
like you said, Max, that have to be weighed into
the equation when you're out there trying to put your
fifty three man roster together. You know, who do you
not want to lose for the few future, even if
(20:01):
it's even if that guy isn't quite as prepared now
as maybe you'd like him to be, uh for primetime
NFL football.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, and it's a process that you know that, this
is why those guys get paid what they get paid
in the in the front office, right, we throw to
sift and make these tough decisions and go find those guys,
to go find the guys who are going to go
out and do battle for your team and and make
(20:31):
this roster whole. That's what you're going for and that
and that's that's the enviable position that I do not
like to have. I do not want to be in
that position to have to make that type of decisions.
And that's why those guys do that and get paid
the big bucks and we get to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We don't.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
We don't have to make the decision of that. That
is nice, considerably less pressure. So a few more roster
cuts made that we have to get through, you know,
some some breaking roster stuff. We talked about the Marvin
Leal earlier. He was the guy that was not on
the list yesterday. We have several positions to get through.
On the offense. We've run through defense, where by last count,
(21:11):
thirty one players still remain. The three special teamers. We
have four tight ends, four quarterbacks. That leaves us running back,
wide receiver and offensive line to tackle, which we will
do next inside the locker Room with King and Starks
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And welcome back inside the locker Room with King and Starks,
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
As once again we go through updated cuts by the
Steelers as they try to get down to their roster limit.
It is time now to tackle a position near and
dear to our friend Max Starks is hard and that
is the offensive line yesterday, Steve Jones, Aiden Williams this morning,
(22:10):
Uh just a short time ago, Dylan Cook. So any
of those moves that surprise you and anything you have
to say about those three players, Maximilian.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think you know for a guy like Aiden Williams.
You know, it was it was. It was a tough prospect,
you know, to get in there, and Aiden was inside
of that at that guard position. You know, obviously having
Isaac c Amalu have, having a Mason McCormick and of
course a Spencer Anderson, you know, to try and crack
that top three was gonna be tough because Spencer's been here,
(22:45):
Spencer has done it, and at multitude of position, you
can play all five positions Isaac, Mason or your starters,
so you were gonna have to show tremendous growth and
also position flexibility. So, you know, Aiden being kind of
that one position type of guy made it tough for him.
I think in the case of Stephen Jones, Stephen Jones
(23:06):
showed a lot of promise being able to play guard
and tackle and doing that in games. But I think,
you know, some of some of the struggles and the
penalties is what really ended up kind of consuming Steven.
Stehen was a guy I thought was had a lot
of promise and then kind of had a little bit
of a hiccup and a setback in that Tampa Bay game,
you know, with not being able to you know, it
(23:29):
was a it was a holding, then there was then
then there was a false start penalty, and those type
of little things that when you're when you're that fringe guy,
you can't have those mistakes. And I think those are
the things that just got to him and and made
it tough, made it more of a tough, tougher uphill
battle because you had the strikes against you. I think
in the case of Dylan Cook, Dylan was a swing tackle,
(23:51):
but you brought in Calvin Anderson to be a swing tackle.
You brought in Andrews Pete, and Andrews Pete can play
guard and tackle for you, so there was a little
little bit more position flexibility and also higher priority on
some of the guys. You know, you brought a guy
in in the offseason that was to be a swing tackle,
a veteran guy that could play, and then also and
(24:12):
a guy and Andrews Pete you bring in and he
showed you that he can play tackle, l and guard,
So that kind of made it tougher for Dylan to
kind of find his way in there. Now, do I
think he's a guy that can't come back on the
practice squad if he doesn't get picked up, But I
think Dylan's also a good enough player that some teams
have some offensive line depth issues that is going to
be you know, it's going to be easier to pick
(24:36):
him up. And he has game footage out there. You know,
another guy thought that was surprising. And this is a
guy we played earlier in the preseason, Jacksonville. This is
where you start weighing the field. Fred Johnson, former Steeler,
he was here before and went on, you know, went
on pretty much a world who went to Cincinnati for
a while, then went to Philadelphia, won a Super Bowl
with Philadelphia last year. They Jacksonville traded his eventh round
(25:00):
pick for him down there. He played a majority of
that game in Jacksonville at left and right tackle. So
you know, there's other guys in the field as well
that are good that that are good guys that are
gonna get released. I feel like Dylan's right in that
kind of same wheelhouse as Fred, where you know, you know,
it might not fit for this team, but there's plenty
(25:21):
of teas around the league. Listen, there are only so
many land mammals moving around the earth that can do
what offensive lineman can do. As my good friend Craig
Wolfley would say, and he ed he falls in that category.
So I think Dylan will be okay. Just didn't make
the fit here. We had some other options available to us.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I like that land mammals. That's good.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Uh, it's it certainly certainly sets a tone in the mind.
You know when you look at the offensive line. Now
the starting five Roderick Jones, Isaac Ciamalo, Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick,
Troy Faltano.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Now you look at the depth.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Calvin Anderson mentioned that he's dinged up, but he's your
swing tat starting experience in the NFL. Andrews Pete can
play guard and tackle, Pro Bowl former Pro bowler in
the NFL. So a couple of veteran guys. Spencer Anderson,
who's been with the program a couple of years, also
has some starts under his belt. He can play guard,
he can play center. You know, as I start to
(26:19):
say this out loud, this depth that I think a
lot of people were wondering about is beginning to sound
better and better. And then you still have Max Sharping,
another guy who's got thirty or so starts in the NFL,
and Ryan McCollum. We saw come in last year at
the center position and provide some depth for this year.
There's a true center, which is something that works in
his favor. Ten offensive linemen and our list as we
(26:42):
continue this sort of counting, I don't think there's gonna
be I think there's gonna be nine.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I don't think there's gonna be ten.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I'm gonna go with eight. I'm gonna go eight and
two squad guys.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Okay among that group.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, okay, I think there's gonna be eight, just because
as we get further into this offensive it's gonna be
tough to justify nine with some of the other skill
position guys.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Right, So to recap, right, we have four tight ends,
we have four quarterbacks, but we're pretty sure we're gonna
wind up with three quarterbacks. That gives us seven. Now
we have ten offensive lineman as of right now, that
would be seventeen, which if you went with twenty five guys,
which would mean six guys being cut on defense, none
(27:32):
of whom we want to see cut. If you're going
with twenty five, though, that now leaves you eight positions
at running back and at wide receiver. So let's tackle
the running back position and we saw a guy that
I think we both really enjoyed watching from the very
first day. You know, he signed, he throws his helmet on,
(27:53):
he's out there. I think he might have joined the
practice late. I don't even remember. But all of a sudden,
you see Lou Nichols out there. And this guy was
drafted by the Packers in the seventh round a few
years ago. And and I think you appreciated. Uh but
when I say you, I'm I'm the royal You both
of us and others appreciated how hard this guy played
(28:14):
and sort of the fearless streak that he seems to
have him in as a player, and a guy that
I think, in an ideal world you wouldn't mind seeing
back in the practice squad. But thus far, he's the
only running back Lou Nichols who have been officially released
by the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, and like I said, I thought he I thought
he flashed a lot of a lot of good, good
traits at the running back position. And I mean he
ran hard, He had explosives every game, you know, I mean,
you know that's what you wanted a running back, But
you've already got three running backs that do that. You've
already got three guys who are skilled at that, and
(28:52):
I didn't really see as much in the special teams capabilities, right,
he wasn't he wasn't he wasn't a kickoff returner. He
didn't really show up in the court four. So I
think that was where it was, like, this is a
true running back by trade, and you'd have to work
him into the core for special teams, and with the
list that you have of guys already still on this roster,
(29:13):
I think that made it a little bit a little
bit tough to find a wedge for him to get
in there. But nothing against him. I love Lou Nichols.
I thought he was a great running back and he's
a guy I wouldn't mind having it in my backfield
if I'm running a play and needing, needing to get
that hard earned yards. I feel like he's that guy
that can get you the harder and yards. Plus he
can also give you that touch of explosive. He has
(29:35):
a different gear, so you know, for Lou Nichols put
his best foot forward and like I said, he put
tape out there, and I think thirty one other teams
are also looking at what he did and unfortunately, just
a numbers game once again with the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And so the four guys, Max, I don't know if
there's going to be four.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
You think there's gonna be three.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I think I would be hard pressed for it to
be three.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's tough to say. I mean, you know, with the
four this remaining, all four of them showed up, do
their jobs, and you know, obviously one of them is
a draft pick, another one is a highly talented free
agency acquisition, and one was already on your squad. You know,
you had a decision to make between him and another
guy and he went out. So it's really tough for
(30:22):
me to say that there's only going to be three
running backs. I feel like feel like this is one
of those positions where you might keep.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
For so by the way, apropos of nothing, But we
were kicking this around in the office yesterday about one
of our favorite quotes in the NFL. You know, there's
so many, so many good ones over the years. So
you know, John McKay, the old Tampa Bay coach. We
could we could John McKay, right, former USC coach. Yeah,
(30:50):
we could spend all day just quoting him. But for
some reason. This quote came up by Leroy Horde, who said,
you know, hard running, you know, physical running back. He said,
you know, he played for the Browns, the Panthers, the
Ravens of Vikings. He said, if you need two yards,
I'll get your three yards. If you need five yards,
(31:10):
I'll get your three yards.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
I don't know for some reason.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
A nothing we're talking about, but I just thought, I
just I love that quote, so I just thought i'd
share that one.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, that's a good one. And like you said, hey
know who you are, right know thyself? Right?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, so you have the running back room looks like this.
Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, Kenneth Gainwell, Troy Sermon, Trey Sermon,
I beg your pardon. The top three guy, Evan Hall,
was released earlier. The top three guys are locks, right,
no doubt. Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, Kenneth Gainwell.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Gainwell is going to be you know, could potentially be
your third down back. You know, he's excelled in that
role in Philadelphia. He's a very good kick returner. I mean,
you know, those three guys, they're just no brainers. The
question is whether you can keep four Max. And as
we continue our account right now of what is on
the roster now, four tight ends, four quarterbacks, four running backs,
(32:18):
ten offensive linemen, that adds up to twenty two. And
we have not hit the receiver room. And they're not
just going to keep three wide receivers, Max.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
No, they're not. No, They're not going to keep just
three wide receivers. And this is one where this is
where it becomes tough, right, This is the tough moment
in these to try and get down because each one
of them provides something unique, just like the tight end position. Right,
you get a lot of versatility, a lot of utility
(32:47):
from this position group, just like you do with the
running back group as well. So it's going to be really,
really tough, and I can't wait to get through this one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Okay, before we get there, I do want to say
this once again, because you know, we've been trying to
point this out. It may seem kind of obvious, but
I think it's still bears repeating again for maybe fans
or just getting into football, or maybe you just need
a different way to look at things. But you know,
we have four tight ends and we think there'll be
four tight ends. There's four quarterbacks. We think there'll be
three quarterbacks, right, that's seven. You know, let's say you
(33:18):
went to max route and said eight offensive linemen, right,
and now you go four running backs. Okay, that could
allow you to keep five wide receivers, which would be
by my count, twenty four offensive players, which would now
allow you to keep an extra defensive player. So instead
of getting from thirty one to twenty five, you only
(33:39):
have to get from thirty one to twenty six. So
you'd be able to keep one more of these players
that were kind of, you know, gnashing our teeth about,
and so that's that could be a factor as well. Hey,
it's not just are you the one of the top
six receivers? For example, it might be are you one
of the top six receivers but also one of the
(34:02):
best players available?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Are are you as a sixth receiver better than a
ninth offensive lineman, or better than a fifth inside linebacker
or better than a seventh defensive lignement. It's it's gonna
come down to decisions like that.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean that's what's gonna
make this tough. And like you said, whatever you take
from one, you're gonna add to the other. You take
one from offense, you get, you're gonna add it to
the defense. And is that the best course of action?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And that gives you that flexibility to say, are we
good with eight offensive lineman?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Do we?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Or is it absolutely imperative that we keep nine on
the active roster and only bring one on the practice squad,
you know, because we don't think we can get this
guy or health it might be an issue and you're
playing and you're playing with with that with that type
of ammunition. I mean, I'm all for equality and balance.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know, am I an offensive guy first? Absolutely? But
I also I know I know the importance of defensive
guys and you know, having that guy. But the question
is going to be is that fifth outside linebacker more
valuable than the ninth offensive lineman you know and it
or is that fifth wide receiver more valuable than the
sixth dB? Like, those are the things you have to
(35:16):
ask yourself. And that's where this process becomes super tight,
super tough to get to get to those places. And
so it's it and this this is what we don't envy.
That's why we go through this exercise. That's why we
do this because this is not as easy as it is.
This isn't like putting together your fantasy roster where you
get the entire NFL at you're at your exposure, Like
(35:39):
this is a finite list of what you need and
also what your team philosophy and what your team goals are,
and how you feel comfortable at each position and the
redundancies behind them right the the the quote unquote second wave,
the starters in waiting, that unit you know, and who's
going to be a contributor on game day versus we're
keeping him. And this is more so like throughout the week,
(36:02):
and you know he's a possible dress guy or non
possible dress like, all those things play into the equation.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
We're gonna get to the final finite group of wide
receivers and take one last glance over what we've gleaned
through as the Steelers get ready to make that those
moves to the final fifty three, well the the semi
final fifty three later today at four o'clock, when we
continue inside the locker room with King and Starks, presented
(36:29):
by our neighborhood Ford.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Store on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And Welcome back inside the locker room with King and
Starks presented our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Ford Store on this Steeler's audio network. What do we have?
Is it the bell lap?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Is it time for the bell lap?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
The early lunch warning system is in gaze Rub and
if anything, we are on time. And we do love
to make sure that people are well fed and well
prepared for what is to come in the next hour,
and that is the lunch hour. And yes, we will
be foraging after this show, and make sure that we
also take suit to the warning that we've given.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yes and we have.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
We have some news and some other things to get
through here. So Echiliota has been waived by the Steelers.
So that gets the defensive numbers by our count down
to thirty. We're figuring twenty five, maybe twenty six guys
on defense. I do think what this does is that
of all the positions on the roster, I feel pretty
(37:41):
certain that two are set. Two will not see more moves,
and that is outside linebacker, which is going to be
Watt Sawyer high Smith and Herbig and I don't think
we're going to see any changes to the tight end room,
which is Friarmouth Smith, Washington and Hayward. Do you agree
with that assessment that those two roster spots as we
(38:03):
approach the four o'clock deadline are in fact set and
are not going to be reduced any further.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I believe they are safe. I okay, they are safe
for right now. So I agree with that, with that assessment,
I think that group is now kind of finalized for now,
and we'll we'll work on other other trimmings, so to speak,
and not that group.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Okay, So let us get to the wide receiver room,
our last group of players, our last position group, and
that is yesterday the announcements that Max Hurlman and Lance
McCutcheon had been let go. McCutchen had his moments for
sure in the in the preseason, and Hurlerman was one
of those guys that I think kind of caught their
(38:49):
eye back in OTAs in mini camp. His story was
he went to started out at Colgate, went to Notre
Dame for one final season and really was a special
teams player. You know, he had played some defensive back
and you know you're trying to receiver. Had number thirty four,
which was strange watching the guy run around at receiver
(39:10):
with number thirty four, which is generally either a running
back or defensive back number.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
So those guys, you know, let go.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
And I don't think either of those moves was incredibly surprising.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Max. Do you agree?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I would agree with that assessment. It wasn't surprising I
think for Max. I mean Max had his moments where
you saw a lot of a lot of growth and versatility,
but at the end of the day, you know, it
was still one of those things where you know it
wasn't enough versus the rest of the roster, and it
(39:47):
was intriguing.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
He's a guy.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I also I wouldn't be surprised if we try and
get him back on special teams, sorry, on practice squad
to develop a little bit more so he can clearly
define a role. I think he was just he was
a jack of all trades, mas stir of none, right,
And that's kind of where when you're thinking about settling
these positions are having to actually take a number count,
I guess, is he an offensive player? Is he a
(40:10):
defensive player? Right? You know, when you designate him and
is you know as a core four special teamer, you
still have to have a primary position. And I think
that was the one thing where it was tough considering
what the rest of the field was. He was lumped
in with wide receivers. Well, he went into a very
credit credit room just like we're gonna see, just like
with the secondary and the defensive backs, Like that's the
(40:31):
same thing that kind of happened.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah, And if you have a high level of adaptability,
like a high level of jack of all trades things,
so you know your your floor is extremely high at
a position like for example, you know Scotty Miller and
Ben's Karonic. As we get to the wide receiver, we
both know what those guys can do. And Scotty Miller
can he can you know, as he showed last year,
(40:55):
he could be a gun around a punt team. He
can hold kicks for you, he can uh, he can
play a solid wide receiver. Ben Scronic can play a
solid wide receiver. He also brings you a blocking element
at the wide receiver position. He's also a special teams guy.
So those are you know, Connor Heyward's a jack of
all trades. But you know, again with a high floor
(41:15):
and things that he that he excels at. So you know,
if you're Max Hrlman, maybe that's the kind of thing
you're trying to develop into, is that sort of you know,
jack of all trades, but you know, let's start getting
your master's degrees too, So you know, he's definitely definitely
caught their eye, you got that sense, and he'll be
an interesting guy. So that leaves us just the wide receivers.
(41:38):
Here's what you got DK Metcalf, Roman Wilson, Calvin Austin,
Scotty Miller, Robert Woods, Ben Skearnick, Brandon Johnson, and Keyshawn Williams.
He didn't see Brandon Johnson because he had a foot
injury down in Carolina on Thursday. So that's eight wide
receivers running our list up on the offense to thirty
(41:59):
guys again, four tight ends, four quarterbacks, ten offensive linemen,
four running backs, eight wide receivers. As of right now,
I don't see any chance that there's any more than six.
And I think, you know, it's possible that could be
a five man wide receiver group.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
That could be And like you said, but we're also
weighing this against you know, we know what Ben Scronick is.
We know it's Scottie Miller. So you're saying that now
that those are two duo guys. And now you're saying, okay,
Keishawn Williams, Well, we saw Keshawn can return punts for us,
and he also can catch touchdowns. That's another that's another notch.
(42:37):
So now that's three, three guys who have special teams
capability in your wide receiving corps. And then Calvin Austin.
We already know he's a punt returner, we know that
he that he that he's a guy who's who's gonna
be looked at as a second wide receiver in the lineups.
And then rookie plus himself, Roman Wilson had a heck
had a heck of a preseason, had a heck of
a preseason and showed you why you drafted him a
(43:00):
year ago. And he came alive as well as another guy.
So now you're saying, and he's also a guy who
could who could potentially return kicks for you as well.
So now that's that's another one. And then of course
DK set it forget it. Let's not even you can't
even have that conversation with with with DK. But that's
where you run into the log jam. A lot of
(43:22):
guys with a lot of versatility, a lot of skill
sets that are very desirable on game days and when
you're thinking about, you know, the world of injuries and
how it's a matter of more so if not, when
that's where you're like, Okay, well, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 3 (43:39):
By the way, stop reverse that? When not?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
If yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, when not? If that's what
I meant to say.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
We're getting there, really want over the last couple of days.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah we have, we We've been all over the place.
But but I think that's exactly how this has to
be looked at and that's what makes this tough. That's
what also makes us a fun exercise. You know, hey,
what what are we gonna do here? And you saw
a lot of good things and like you said, Brandon
Johnson up until that injury, Brandon Johnson a guy I
talked about him, you know since training camp. He's a
(44:10):
strong hand catching wide receiver that is physical, can go
catch the ball in the middle of the field, and
he can turn the ball up and get and separate
in space. That's a desirable skill set as well. And
he made plays on special teams. He made tackles. Yep,
he was he wasn't just gunnar that. I mean, yeah,
that's a value, that's a valuable skill.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
And was with the team a year ago, so knows
the system, knows what's expected at him. Caught nineteen passes
for Denver a couple of years ago, has started three
games in the NFL, and so you know he has
that on his on his resume. And then you know,
you talk about a guy like, you know, Robert Woods,
you talk about receptions on your resume. This guy's got
six hundred and eighty three of them, you know, and
(44:53):
he plays a physical brand of football, which is Steelers
like a willing blocker. Uh So, if it comes down
to those three guys for one spot, Keyshawn Williams, Robert Woods,
and Brandon Johnson, it's gonna be an interesting decision. Or
if it comes out of those three guys versus a
ninth offensive lineman or a fifth in side linebacker, it's
(45:15):
gonna be fascinating stuff. By this time tomorrow, we'll know,
although we'll also be waiting on the waiver wire process,
which ends at noon tomorrow just as our show is ending.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
So lots to get to max.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It's been a fun exercise and it all leads up
to this, there are gonna be so we have sixty
three guys right now. By our account, you have to
get down to fifty three and then start putting together
the practice squad. There're gonna be some uneasy moments for
a number of guys between now and four o'clock and
then potentially between four o'clock and noon tomorrow. So we
(45:52):
hope those guys can hold it together. It's been fun
talking about this, Max, and look forward to the release
of the fifty three man today at four o'clock.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Can't wait for it and can't wait to dissect this
and see what decisions were made, and you know, to
see how this twenty twenty five Steelers teams is gonna
is gonna take shape. It's gonna be really fun. And
like I said, the journey begins.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It begins, Max, always fun going on the journey with you,
my friend. I appreciate it. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks
to Justin Miller for producing in our I Heart Studio.
I'm Rob King with Max Starts. We thank you for
listening to the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store. Here on the Steelers Audio
network
Am taking Max. Hup Max you there we lost Max.
That is the that is the signal that we are
that we are approaching the power hour. And uh so
(00:29):
we are. We're approaching the power hour. That's uh Maximus
Prime or whatever that what what is it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Optimist Prime? Get it Get it right, Rob, get it right.
This Optimist Prime has broke Kid of the eighties.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Optimist Prime.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
He is Optimist Prime. Everybody else got a big rig
guy that's optimist Optimist from here on out.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, so uh yeah, okay, So where were we optimist
the Power Hour?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's right, the Power Hour engaged our number.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Two Welcome back inside the locker room of King and Starks,
presented by our neighborhood Fords Store. Here in the Steelers
Audio Network went through the cuts on defense and where
the Steelers stand right now with the roster at thirty
one players, all of whom we like that are still
as of now, as of this moment, I'm the Steelers roster.
So let's get to the special teams, because that is
(01:22):
the one area that does appear to be set for
the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And I think.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
One of the ones that also made me pause, not
that I thought it was at all. The wrong decision
was the punter position. So the contract of Cam Johnston
was terminated and Corless Weightman. You know, Max, we saw
a lot of practices, we saw the games, and they
set this up as a competition. So Cam Johnston looked
(01:50):
incredible last year in camp. He has a long pedigree
of being a really successful NFL punter. But honestly, if
you set two guys up head ahead, if you didn't
know who was the pedigreed punter and who was the
guy who came in last year Off Waivers In had
a nice season for you, you just said here they are, uh,
pick one.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I can't disagree with the choice.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I thought Corlus Weightman had a terrific camp, and I
thought he showed up during the games.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now, and I'm right there with you. I think this
was one that you know, it was a tough decision, right,
you know you you'd brought Cam Johnston in to be
to be your punter long term, and like you said,
I mean Corls Weightman came in and all he did
was boot the ball, give you great hang time and
give your team an opportunity to be successful and to
(02:39):
and to and to win and so you know, with
that it was a straight up battle. They they literally
split the difference, right, you know, they went straight up, Hey,
we're gonna go punt for punt here and give give
everybody the opportunity, you know, to play and put your
best foot forward. And you know, Corli's weightman won that job.
(03:00):
And I think that was something that you know, was
was was was a decision by the team and it
was a fair contest. I mean, it's one of the
few I say, you know, it's a fair one. Corlis
Corliss did a better job than Cam when it came
down to it, and you know, we we were in
punter excess. But once again, this was also when we
talk about the depth, because there's nothing that Cam Johnston
(03:21):
did wrong, right, you know, there was nothing that he
did that was that was bad or he wasn't terrible.
It's just it came down to, you know, head to head.
The guy coming off of injury wasn't as clean as
a guy who was who was who was who was
healthy the whole year. And that's literally how it happened sometimes,
you know, and you know, we always talk about the
(03:42):
Wally Pips of the world, and you know we give
all of these other analogies, but this is this is
what it looks like. This is the reality of it.
So nothing against Cam. I loved Cam. I thought Cam
had a great leg. I mean especially a year ago.
I mean he was booming punts. But you're coming off
of injury, so it's it's tough get back in that groove.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And again, you know, we talk about decisions that are
made and you know the sliding scale of things and
where are you as a team, what do you need
as a team? You know, is Cam Johnson back one
hundred percent?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But I also don't want to take anything away from
cordless weightment because he was twelfth last year in the
NFL and net punting and as we know, that's that's
not easy to do in Pittsburgh. You have conditions to punting.
You're not punting in a dome, you're not punting in
warm weather where the ball is going to travel easier
and better.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
And we could say the same thing about the kicker.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That's why that that's why I think, you know, we
agree we take Chris Boswell over anybody else in the
game because he has to kick under conditions that other
kickers don't have to. And even with that, the numbers
are still great. You know, the numbers are still as
good as any winning in the league. So you have
weightment in Boswell and Christian Kotz. No other guys were
cut yesterday as part of that. So that's that's one
(05:00):
area of the team. As we sit here right now,
that's set. You're gonna have a punter, kicker, special teams.
You're three special teams guys at those positions.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
That is set.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
We can write three down and I'm doing this right
now as we talk. I'm putting three down, Max, and
I'm circling it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, Okay, that's the only three we have. We have
fifty more to go.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So we have thirty one on defense, we have three
on special teams, and the three are set and the
thirty one are not set.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Right, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So let's take a look at a couple of different
positions here on offense. Let's start with the tight end position.
And you know this was interesting to me because JJ
Gallbreath came in. He was he showed up in mini
camp and OTA's and all that stuff and.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Really look good. Really turned heads again.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I think he's a guy on a different roster that
maybe ask different things out of their tight ends, a
different roster that isn't so deep at that tight end position.
He might be a guy that you would keep and say, hey, listen,
we we see a lot here. Let's keep this guy.
He seems to me again to be a guy you
(06:11):
would love to stash on the on the on this
the sixteen man practice squad. I don't know whether that's
gonna happen or not, but your thoughts on JJ Galbreath,
who was the lone tight end who didn't make the
roster them will discuss the tight end position.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I thought JJ, you know, he showed a lot of flash,
a lot of ability. I think the biggest thing was,
you know, when you're coming in, you already have a
lot of guys who who do similar things. And I
think that's kind of where he fell, you know, a
little bit by the wayside, so to speak, because we
(06:47):
we do have that guy who who can who can
play off the ball, right, We do have a guy
who can who can separate in the slot. And for JJ,
he brought a similar skill set, So it was like, okay,
did we go with the guy with the similar skill
set that that fits it with everybody else, or do
we look for somebody who offers something a little bit different.
(07:09):
And I think that's ultimately what played into the JJ
decision was that he did a lot of things good,
but he had a very similar skill set to the
guys we already had on the roster and guys who
are more experienced.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So as we look at the tight end position, this
is the one position we've got to gotten to max
where I'm pretty sure this is set. Like, I'm not
positive they'll keep five outside linebackers or five inside linebackers.
I'm not positive about that. Eight cornerbacks. I don't I
don't think so. I think Pat Fryarmouth, John euy Smith,
(07:44):
Darnel Washington, and Connor Hayward.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I think they're making the roster all for them.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The Yeah, yeah, there's there's no question about that. Yeah,
that's one position, easy.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's one position we think we've nailed the.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Set it and forget it. Okay, forget it.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So no moves made at the quarterback position. So that
means right now we have Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, will Howard,
Skyler Thompson. Now we saw Will out there with a
pinky injury throwing some footballs in pregame warm ups down
in Carolina on Thursday. We also saw Skyler Thompson come
(08:23):
in and once again look sharp at the quarterback position.
Again to refresh people's memories, not only is this the
guy who has started games in the NFL, but this
is the guy who started in a playoff game in
the NFL. Skyler Thompson has some pedigree on his resume.
So I feel very confident in saying, well, I should
(08:45):
you know, I fairly confident in saying because you don't
know for sure, fairly confident in saying this number will
wean from four to three and somehow in some way
by the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Today, Yes, it will one way or another. You know,
you kind of play a little bit of that cat
and mouse game with with other teams trying to figure
out if if there's a utility. Think about what just
recently happened to a guy by the name of Kenny Pickett,
(09:18):
which I'm sure everybody knows. Kenny was traded to the
Las Vegas Raiders, and so you're trying to see if
there is an additional value for a guy who can
come in and help your team immediately. And I think
that's kind of what you kind of wait at. You
you want to wait this out to the very last minute.
You don't want to be presumptive. You don't want to
(09:41):
throw it in ahead of time. It's like, hey, maybe
maybe there's a value here, Maybe there's there's sub opportunity
to be able to move you know, a guy like
a Skylar Thompson, you know, before the trade deadline, because
teams are going to get desperate, teams are going to
have injuries. This is a part of the game, and
this is also part of the gamesmanship inside the game.
(10:03):
So I'm not surprised that that that that they're holding
on Scalar times. They're not just releasing him out right
this early because there is a value to him.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Or you know, are you thinking about, as some have suggested,
potentially saying, look, we don't have to make this decision now.
Will Howard hasn't been able to practice in a couple
of weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We still feel.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Very strongly about him as a developmental quarterback. We certainly
don't want to put him on IR for the rest
of the year. Well, again, that's this is some people thinking.
I'm not saying this is what the Steelers are thinking,
but you know, if we put him on the IR now,
he's lost for the for the season. But if we
put him on the IR today is one of these
two special designation spots, then he's out for four weeks.
(10:48):
We make sure he's healed, he can at least witness practice,
and then we can make our decision.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Then he's got what twenty one days to come back. Yes, yeah,
so you know you can kick this decision, you know,
down the road for another almost two months.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
The other thing, too, is that, you know, I think
that for a lot of other positions, that would be
undesirable losing practice time, right, you want guys out there. Yeah,
but I'm not sure how many snaps your third quarterback
gets in practice.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
He is all of the quote unquote scout developmental scout
team reps potentially, and that's about it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right. Yeah. So it's one position in which.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, uh, maybe you could consider saying, hey, if
somebody standing there the baseball cap on watching things, observing practice,
sitting in meetings, doing that kind of things, he hasn't
lost that much. I don't know, Max, I don't know
what decision is going to be made. I just feel
pretty sure that there's not going to be four quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
In the roster.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, Rob, I don't I
don't see the space for four, but I do see
kind of the vision, uh that that you're showing, and
that Yeah, this this is an opportunity. You know, potentially
if if you need that extra time with Will Howard
to get him healthy, you know, you can stash him
(12:20):
so to speak. You can you can put him on
you can put him on on the uh on the
on the short term I R and uh, and you
can still keep a quote unquote a four fourth quarterback
for now and then like you said, that decision comes later,
maybe a trade comes. A lot of other things can happen.
I mean, it's not a problem to have those guys,
(12:42):
and and there is a creative way. And once again
we do not know, but it is a smart way
to look at it that you had that potential because
Will Howard is injured, because he's not healthy, he did
not play any snaps in the preseason games. So if
you if you want to go with the trusted, tried,
tested and true type of emergency third Skylar Thompson did
(13:05):
everything you could ask him to do and more, and
he wouldn't be a bad guy to have as your
third option. And you allow Will to kind of heal,
like you said, he can still see, he can still view,
and then you kind of keep him and you don't
have to put him out there for waivers and put
an exposed into potentially losing him after you after.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It again, yes, get it, get it, get it, understand it.
But let's think about all the other players who are
dinged up and we don't know the full extent because
injury reports don't have to come out until I think
next week. Yeah, week one, right, so also dinged up
to in some way, shape or form that we know of.
(13:45):
And I might be missing some guys here, but your
top swing tackle, backup tackle, Calvin Anderson, your number one
pick on the defensive line, Derek Carmon, Corey Trice, Dante Ken,
Beanie Bishop. Will throw Will Howard into this list as
lung as we're listening. That's six. I think I feel
(14:05):
like I'm missing one or two guys. That's six guys.
Remember that this extra roster maneuvering that we're talking about
you can only do it with two guys. So just
pointing that out that, yeah, you know, we can't just
say oh yeah, I just do that because there are
other just like there are other factors to concern yourself,
special teams, and where does he fit in and and
(14:28):
you know, what is our goal with his team? And
you know, how is this position going to affect who
we keep at the end of the roster and so
on and so forth. These decisions are are are linked
in with other decisions that need to be made. So
just keep in mind that, you know, we can say
that and that may wind up happening, but that also
(14:49):
may wind up costing potentially costing somebody else's spot on
the roster too. So because you can't, you know, that's
one less position you could potentially use for that fifty
fourth and fifty good guy who you can put on
short term.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
My arm.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, now, it definitely does. And like you said, I mean,
this is this is this is the gamesmanship. You've got
to figure out something you know, and also potential you know,
if you wave a guy injured, that's another thing that
you have to consider. Waving a guy injured in those
moments is a tough is a tough type of way
to to kind of calibrate it because, like you said,
(15:25):
there's more interest in our spaces. Plus you also have
to consider, you know, what guys have shown and what
they haven't shown. You know, I think for Dante Kent
a lot of potential, but you haven't seen it live.
You haven't seen it, so you know, is that potential greater,
you know, than what you might have in somebody else.
(15:45):
That's the decision making process that's going to go through
this is can I risk letting this guy go for
the future value that he may have? And that plays
a big role into it as well. And I think
we'll see that as we get closer to that four
point thirty pm Eastern Standard time designation time for everybody
(16:06):
to cut, and does that player offer something against the
field because this is happening in thirty one other places
as well, right and there's gonna be some teams that
let go of some good players, just like the Steelers
are doing that could potentially help your team, and you
don't know that yet until we get to that time.
So that's what you're also waiting because you're fifty three,
(16:28):
still not set and you're looking at these guys and
you know, and there's also you have to think about this,
there's a waiverclaim priority rob as well that I don't
think a lot of people are aware of that when
we say we're putting a guy on waivers. I think
a lot of people just hear, oh, you're just letting
them out there and anybody can pick them up. No,
there's a priority list. So you know, teams that have
(16:52):
that had higher draft picks, you know, designations, and the
priority that also slots. So we could say that, you know,
we could come and get a guy, you know, from
another team, but if there's a team that has a
higher waiver priority, you still lose out on that guy. Yep,
that's right, and then it slots as you claim. So
(17:15):
there's this other mechanism that's an effect for a competitive
balance that also comes into play when you're saying you're
putting a guy on waivers, because five teams can put
a waiver claim in and the highest priority gets that guy.
So you could still lose it just because they say, oh,
I'm gonna go get I don't know, just a random guy.
I'm gonna go get Julius Welshoff, right, you know, because
(17:37):
he because he's released. No, but if four of the
teams put in for Julius Welshoff as well, guess what,
Julius Wellshoff is going to the team with the higher priority.
And that's how it's going to play.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's easy when it's just apples to apples, right, I'm
the only one that puts a claim out for him,
and I get him. That's that's an easy traditional way.
But every team, thirty two teams are scouring and everyone's
putting in waiverclaim priority on all these players because they
want to get them. Because what you see thirty one
other team see from the Steelers perspective, and that's the
(18:13):
other game that.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
You have to play for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And that deadline is coming up on Wednesday, August twenty
seventh at noon. So tomorrow today's Tuesday, right, yeah, tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Mark away Wednesday, December Wednesday, August you mean tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, come tomorrow at noon.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Jeez, that's the time. You know, all these waiver claims
have to be put in and again you know, uh,
you say to yourself normally, you know, later draft choices,
you know, maybe Carson Brunner, maybe Dante Kent. Maybe you
can get him onto the onto the practice squad. Well
maybe you can't. Maybe there's a team like I just
(18:56):
saw the projected win totals for teams, and look, teams
aren't sitting there and saying, wow, the you know, the
athletic put out their projected win totals, we're not going
to be very good, so let's go on this course
of action. But teams are self aware of where they are.
If you're a team and you're like, look, man, we
are rebuilding now, new coach, new GM we're cleaning guys out,
(19:18):
you might just be sitting there in the waiver wire
being like, okay, we can get It's like getting an
additional draft. Picking this last draft. You're waiting around for
other teams to cut their sixth and seventh round guys,
guys that you might have had a draft greade on
and you might just be waiting to scoop them up.
You might have fifty three guys on your roster right now,
and you might be letting eight of those guys go
(19:40):
because you're in full scale rebuild mode. So you know,
but fans just sort of saying, wow, we'll get on
the practice squad. Hey, hold on, now, these are all things,
like you said, Max, that have to be weighed into
the equation when you're out there trying to put your
fifty three man roster together. You know, who do you
not want to lose for the few future, even if
(20:01):
it's even if that guy isn't quite as prepared now
as maybe you'd like him to be, uh for primetime
NFL football.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, and it's a process that you know that, this
is why those guys get paid what they get paid
in the in the front office, right, we throw to
sift and make these tough decisions and go find those guys,
to go find the guys who are going to go
out and do battle for your team and and make
(20:31):
this roster whole. That's what you're going for and that
and that's that's the enviable position that I do not
like to have. I do not want to be in
that position to have to make that type of decisions.
And that's why those guys do that and get paid
the big bucks and we get to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We don't.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
We don't have to make the decision of that. That
is nice, considerably less pressure. So a few more roster
cuts made that we have to get through, you know,
some some breaking roster stuff. We talked about the Marvin
Leal earlier. He was the guy that was not on
the list yesterday. We have several positions to get through.
On the offense. We've run through defense, where by last count,
(21:11):
thirty one players still remain. The three special teamers. We
have four tight ends, four quarterbacks. That leaves us running back,
wide receiver and offensive line to tackle, which we will
do next inside the locker Room with King and Starks
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And welcome back inside the locker Room with King and Starks,
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
As once again we go through updated cuts by the
Steelers as they try to get down to their roster limit.
It is time now to tackle a position near and
dear to our friend Max Starks is hard and that
is the offensive line yesterday, Steve Jones, Aiden Williams this morning,
(22:10):
Uh just a short time ago, Dylan Cook. So any
of those moves that surprise you and anything you have
to say about those three players, Maximilian.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think you know for a guy like Aiden Williams.
You know, it was it was. It was a tough prospect,
you know, to get in there, and Aiden was inside
of that at that guard position. You know, obviously having
Isaac c Amalu have, having a Mason McCormick and of
course a Spencer Anderson, you know, to try and crack
that top three was gonna be tough because Spencer's been here,
(22:45):
Spencer has done it, and at multitude of position, you
can play all five positions Isaac, Mason or your starters,
so you were gonna have to show tremendous growth and
also position flexibility. So, you know, Aiden being kind of
that one position type of guy made it tough for him.
I think in the case of Stephen Jones, Stephen Jones
(23:06):
showed a lot of promise being able to play guard
and tackle and doing that in games. But I think,
you know, some of some of the struggles and the
penalties is what really ended up kind of consuming Steven.
Stehen was a guy I thought was had a lot
of promise and then kind of had a little bit
of a hiccup and a setback in that Tampa Bay game,
you know, with not being able to you know, it
(23:29):
was a it was a holding, then there was then
then there was a false start penalty, and those type
of little things that when you're when you're that fringe guy,
you can't have those mistakes. And I think those are
the things that just got to him and and made
it tough, made it more of a tough, tougher uphill
battle because you had the strikes against you. I think
in the case of Dylan Cook, Dylan was a swing tackle,
(23:51):
but you brought in Calvin Anderson to be a swing tackle.
You brought in Andrews Pete, and Andrews Pete can play
guard and tackle for you, so there was a little
little bit more position flexibility and also higher priority on
some of the guys. You know, you brought a guy
in in the offseason that was to be a swing tackle,
a veteran guy that could play, and then also and
(24:12):
a guy and Andrews Pete you bring in and he
showed you that he can play tackle, l and guard,
So that kind of made it tougher for Dylan to
kind of find his way in there. Now, do I
think he's a guy that can't come back on the
practice squad if he doesn't get picked up, But I
think Dylan's also a good enough player that some teams
have some offensive line depth issues that is going to
be you know, it's going to be easier to pick
(24:36):
him up. And he has game footage out there. You know,
another guy thought that was surprising. And this is a
guy we played earlier in the preseason, Jacksonville. This is
where you start weighing the field. Fred Johnson, former Steeler,
he was here before and went on, you know, went
on pretty much a world who went to Cincinnati for
a while, then went to Philadelphia, won a Super Bowl
with Philadelphia last year. They Jacksonville traded his eventh round
(25:00):
pick for him down there. He played a majority of
that game in Jacksonville at left and right tackle. So
you know, there's other guys in the field as well
that are good that that are good guys that are
gonna get released. I feel like Dylan's right in that
kind of same wheelhouse as Fred, where you know, you know,
it might not fit for this team, but there's plenty
(25:21):
of teas around the league. Listen, there are only so
many land mammals moving around the earth that can do
what offensive lineman can do. As my good friend Craig
Wolfley would say, and he ed he falls in that category.
So I think Dylan will be okay. Just didn't make
the fit here. We had some other options available to us.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I like that land mammals. That's good.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Uh, it's it certainly certainly sets a tone in the mind.
You know when you look at the offensive line. Now
the starting five Roderick Jones, Isaac Ciamalo, Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick,
Troy Faltano.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Now you look at the depth.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Calvin Anderson mentioned that he's dinged up, but he's your
swing tat starting experience in the NFL. Andrews Pete can
play guard and tackle, Pro Bowl former Pro bowler in
the NFL. So a couple of veteran guys. Spencer Anderson,
who's been with the program a couple of years, also
has some starts under his belt. He can play guard,
he can play center. You know, as I start to
(26:19):
say this out loud, this depth that I think a
lot of people were wondering about is beginning to sound
better and better. And then you still have Max Sharping,
another guy who's got thirty or so starts in the NFL,
and Ryan McCollum. We saw come in last year at
the center position and provide some depth for this year.
There's a true center, which is something that works in
his favor. Ten offensive linemen and our list as we
(26:42):
continue this sort of counting, I don't think there's gonna
be I think there's gonna be nine.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I don't think there's gonna be ten.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I'm gonna go with eight. I'm gonna go eight and
two squad guys.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Okay among that group.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, okay, I think there's gonna be eight, just because
as we get further into this offensive it's gonna be
tough to justify nine with some of the other skill
position guys.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Right, So to recap, right, we have four tight ends,
we have four quarterbacks, but we're pretty sure we're gonna
wind up with three quarterbacks. That gives us seven. Now
we have ten offensive lineman as of right now, that
would be seventeen, which if you went with twenty five guys,
which would mean six guys being cut on defense, none
(27:32):
of whom we want to see cut. If you're going
with twenty five, though, that now leaves you eight positions
at running back and at wide receiver. So let's tackle
the running back position and we saw a guy that
I think we both really enjoyed watching from the very
first day. You know, he signed, he throws his helmet on,
(27:53):
he's out there. I think he might have joined the
practice late. I don't even remember. But all of a sudden,
you see Lou Nichols out there. And this guy was
drafted by the Packers in the seventh round a few
years ago. And and I think you appreciated. Uh but
when I say you, I'm I'm the royal You both
of us and others appreciated how hard this guy played
(28:14):
and sort of the fearless streak that he seems to
have him in as a player, and a guy that
I think, in an ideal world you wouldn't mind seeing
back in the practice squad. But thus far, he's the
only running back Lou Nichols who have been officially released
by the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, and like I said, I thought he I thought
he flashed a lot of a lot of good, good
traits at the running back position. And I mean he
ran hard, He had explosives every game, you know, I mean,
you know that's what you wanted a running back, But
you've already got three running backs that do that. You've
already got three guys who are skilled at that, and
(28:52):
I didn't really see as much in the special teams capabilities, right,
he wasn't he wasn't he wasn't a kickoff returner. He
didn't really show up in the court four. So I
think that was where it was, like, this is a
true running back by trade, and you'd have to work
him into the core for special teams, and with the
list that you have of guys already still on this roster,
(29:13):
I think that made it a little bit a little
bit tough to find a wedge for him to get
in there. But nothing against him. I love Lou Nichols.
I thought he was a great running back and he's
a guy I wouldn't mind having it in my backfield
if I'm running a play and needing, needing to get
that hard earned yards. I feel like he's that guy
that can get you the harder and yards. Plus he
can also give you that touch of explosive. He has
(29:35):
a different gear, so you know, for Lou Nichols put
his best foot forward and like I said, he put
tape out there, and I think thirty one other teams
are also looking at what he did and unfortunately, just
a numbers game once again with the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And so the four guys, Max, I don't know if
there's going to be four.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
You think there's gonna be three.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I think I would be hard pressed for it to
be three.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's tough to say. I mean, you know, with the
four this remaining, all four of them showed up, do
their jobs, and you know, obviously one of them is
a draft pick, another one is a highly talented free
agency acquisition, and one was already on your squad. You know,
you had a decision to make between him and another
guy and he went out. So it's really tough for
(30:22):
me to say that there's only going to be three
running backs. I feel like feel like this is one
of those positions where you might keep.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
For so by the way, apropos of nothing, But we
were kicking this around in the office yesterday about one
of our favorite quotes in the NFL. You know, there's
so many, so many good ones over the years. So
you know, John McKay, the old Tampa Bay coach. We
could we could John McKay, right, former USC coach. Yeah,
(30:50):
we could spend all day just quoting him. But for
some reason. This quote came up by Leroy Horde, who said,
you know, hard running, you know, physical running back. He said,
you know, he played for the Browns, the Panthers, the
Ravens of Vikings. He said, if you need two yards,
I'll get your three yards. If you need five yards,
(31:10):
I'll get your three yards.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
I don't know for some reason.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
A nothing we're talking about, but I just thought, I
just I love that quote, so I just thought i'd
share that one.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, that's a good one. And like you said, hey
know who you are, right know thyself? Right?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, so you have the running back room looks like this.
Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, Kenneth Gainwell, Troy Sermon, Trey Sermon,
I beg your pardon. The top three guy, Evan Hall,
was released earlier. The top three guys are locks, right,
no doubt. Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, Kenneth Gainwell.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Gainwell is going to be you know, could potentially be
your third down back. You know, he's excelled in that
role in Philadelphia. He's a very good kick returner. I mean,
you know, those three guys, they're just no brainers. The
question is whether you can keep four Max. And as
we continue our account right now of what is on
the roster now, four tight ends, four quarterbacks, four running backs,
(32:18):
ten offensive linemen, that adds up to twenty two. And
we have not hit the receiver room. And they're not
just going to keep three wide receivers, Max.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
No, they're not. No, They're not going to keep just
three wide receivers. And this is one where this is
where it becomes tough, right, This is the tough moment
in these to try and get down because each one
of them provides something unique, just like the tight end position. Right,
you get a lot of versatility, a lot of utility
(32:47):
from this position group, just like you do with the
running back group as well. So it's going to be really,
really tough, and I can't wait to get through this one.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Okay, before we get there, I do want to say
this once again, because you know, we've been trying to
point this out. It may seem kind of obvious, but
I think it's still bears repeating again for maybe fans
or just getting into football, or maybe you just need
a different way to look at things. But you know,
we have four tight ends and we think there'll be
four tight ends. There's four quarterbacks. We think there'll be
three quarterbacks, right, that's seven. You know, let's say you
(33:18):
went to max route and said eight offensive linemen, right,
and now you go four running backs. Okay, that could
allow you to keep five wide receivers, which would be
by my count, twenty four offensive players, which would now
allow you to keep an extra defensive player. So instead
of getting from thirty one to twenty five, you only
(33:39):
have to get from thirty one to twenty six. So
you'd be able to keep one more of these players
that were kind of, you know, gnashing our teeth about,
and so that's that could be a factor as well. Hey,
it's not just are you the one of the top
six receivers? For example, it might be are you one
of the top six receivers but also one of the
(34:02):
best players available?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Are are you as a sixth receiver better than a
ninth offensive lineman, or better than a fifth inside linebacker
or better than a seventh defensive lignement. It's it's gonna
come down to decisions like that.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean that's what's gonna
make this tough. And like you said, whatever you take
from one, you're gonna add to the other. You take
one from offense, you get, you're gonna add it to
the defense. And is that the best course of action?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And that gives you that flexibility to say, are we
good with eight offensive lineman?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Do we?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Or is it absolutely imperative that we keep nine on
the active roster and only bring one on the practice squad,
you know, because we don't think we can get this
guy or health it might be an issue and you're
playing and you're playing with with that with that type
of ammunition. I mean, I'm all for equality and balance.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know, am I an offensive guy first? Absolutely? But
I also I know I know the importance of defensive
guys and you know, having that guy. But the question
is going to be is that fifth outside linebacker more
valuable than the ninth offensive lineman you know and it
or is that fifth wide receiver more valuable than the
sixth dB? Like, those are the things you have to
(35:16):
ask yourself. And that's where this process becomes super tight,
super tough to get to get to those places. And
so it's it and this this is what we don't envy.
That's why we go through this exercise. That's why we
do this because this is not as easy as it is.
This isn't like putting together your fantasy roster where you
get the entire NFL at you're at your exposure, Like
(35:39):
this is a finite list of what you need and
also what your team philosophy and what your team goals are,
and how you feel comfortable at each position and the
redundancies behind them right the the the quote unquote second wave,
the starters in waiting, that unit you know, and who's
going to be a contributor on game day versus we're
keeping him. And this is more so like throughout the week,
(36:02):
and you know he's a possible dress guy or non
possible dress like, all those things play into the equation.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
We're gonna get to the final finite group of wide
receivers and take one last glance over what we've gleaned
through as the Steelers get ready to make that those
moves to the final fifty three, well the the semi
final fifty three later today at four o'clock, when we
continue inside the locker room with King and Starks, presented
(36:29):
by our neighborhood Ford.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Store on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And Welcome back inside the locker room with King and
Starks presented our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Ford Store on this Steeler's audio network. What do we have?
Is it the bell lap?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Is it time for the bell lap?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
The early lunch warning system is in gaze Rub and
if anything, we are on time. And we do love
to make sure that people are well fed and well
prepared for what is to come in the next hour,
and that is the lunch hour. And yes, we will
be foraging after this show, and make sure that we
also take suit to the warning that we've given.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yes and we have.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
We have some news and some other things to get
through here. So Echiliota has been waived by the Steelers.
So that gets the defensive numbers by our count down
to thirty. We're figuring twenty five, maybe twenty six guys
on defense. I do think what this does is that
of all the positions on the roster, I feel pretty
(37:41):
certain that two are set. Two will not see more moves,
and that is outside linebacker, which is going to be
Watt Sawyer high Smith and Herbig and I don't think
we're going to see any changes to the tight end room,
which is Friarmouth Smith, Washington and Hayward. Do you agree
with that assessment that those two roster spots as we
(38:03):
approach the four o'clock deadline are in fact set and
are not going to be reduced any further.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
I believe they are safe. I okay, they are safe
for right now. So I agree with that, with that assessment,
I think that group is now kind of finalized for now,
and we'll we'll work on other other trimmings, so to speak,
and not that group.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Okay, So let us get to the wide receiver room,
our last group of players, our last position group, and
that is yesterday the announcements that Max Hurlman and Lance
McCutcheon had been let go. McCutchen had his moments for
sure in the in the preseason, and Hurlerman was one
of those guys that I think kind of caught their
(38:49):
eye back in OTAs in mini camp. His story was
he went to started out at Colgate, went to Notre
Dame for one final season and really was a special
teams player. You know, he had played some defensive back
and you know you're trying to receiver. Had number thirty four,
which was strange watching the guy run around at receiver
(39:10):
with number thirty four, which is generally either a running
back or defensive back number.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
So those guys, you know, let go.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
And I don't think either of those moves was incredibly surprising.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Max. Do you agree?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I would agree with that assessment. It wasn't surprising I
think for Max. I mean Max had his moments where
you saw a lot of a lot of growth and versatility,
but at the end of the day, you know, it
was still one of those things where you know it
wasn't enough versus the rest of the roster, and it
(39:47):
was intriguing.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
He's a guy.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I also I wouldn't be surprised if we try and
get him back on special teams, sorry, on practice squad
to develop a little bit more so he can clearly
define a role. I think he was just he was
a jack of all trades, mas stir of none, right,
And that's kind of where when you're thinking about settling
these positions are having to actually take a number count,
I guess, is he an offensive player? Is he a
(40:10):
defensive player? Right? You know, when you designate him and
is you know as a core four special teamer, you
still have to have a primary position. And I think
that was the one thing where it was tough considering
what the rest of the field was. He was lumped
in with wide receivers. Well, he went into a very
credit credit room just like we're gonna see, just like
with the secondary and the defensive backs, Like that's the
(40:31):
same thing that kind of happened.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah, And if you have a high level of adaptability,
like a high level of jack of all trades things,
so you know your your floor is extremely high at
a position like for example, you know Scotty Miller and
Ben's Karonic. As we get to the wide receiver, we
both know what those guys can do. And Scotty Miller
can he can you know, as he showed last year,
(40:55):
he could be a gun around a punt team. He
can hold kicks for you, he can uh, he can
play a solid wide receiver. Ben Scronic can play a
solid wide receiver. He also brings you a blocking element
at the wide receiver position. He's also a special teams guy.
So those are you know, Connor Heyward's a jack of
all trades. But you know, again with a high floor
(41:15):
and things that he that he excels at. So you know,
if you're Max Hrlman, maybe that's the kind of thing
you're trying to develop into, is that sort of you know,
jack of all trades, but you know, let's start getting
your master's degrees too, So you know, he's definitely definitely
caught their eye, you got that sense, and he'll be
an interesting guy. So that leaves us just the wide receivers.
(41:38):
Here's what you got DK Metcalf, Roman Wilson, Calvin Austin,
Scotty Miller, Robert Woods, Ben Skearnick, Brandon Johnson, and Keyshawn Williams.
He didn't see Brandon Johnson because he had a foot
injury down in Carolina on Thursday. So that's eight wide
receivers running our list up on the offense to thirty
(41:59):
guys again, four tight ends, four quarterbacks, ten offensive linemen,
four running backs, eight wide receivers. As of right now,
I don't see any chance that there's any more than six.
And I think, you know, it's possible that could be
a five man wide receiver group.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
That could be And like you said, but we're also
weighing this against you know, we know what Ben Scronick is.
We know it's Scottie Miller. So you're saying that now
that those are two duo guys. And now you're saying, okay,
Keishawn Williams, Well, we saw Keshawn can return punts for us,
and he also can catch touchdowns. That's another that's another notch.
(42:37):
So now that's three, three guys who have special teams
capability in your wide receiving corps. And then Calvin Austin.
We already know he's a punt returner, we know that
he that he that he's a guy who's who's gonna
be looked at as a second wide receiver in the lineups.
And then rookie plus himself, Roman Wilson had a heck
had a heck of a preseason, had a heck of
a preseason and showed you why you drafted him a
(43:00):
year ago. And he came alive as well as another guy.
So now you're saying, and he's also a guy who
could who could potentially return kicks for you as well.
So now that's that's another one. And then of course
DK set it forget it. Let's not even you can't
even have that conversation with with with DK. But that's
where you run into the log jam. A lot of
(43:22):
guys with a lot of versatility, a lot of skill
sets that are very desirable on game days and when
you're thinking about, you know, the world of injuries and
how it's a matter of more so if not, when
that's where you're like, Okay, well, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 3 (43:39):
By the way, stop reverse that? When not?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
If yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, when not? If that's what
I meant to say.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
We're getting there, really want over the last couple of days.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah we have, we We've been all over the place.
But but I think that's exactly how this has to
be looked at and that's what makes this tough. That's
what also makes us a fun exercise. You know, hey,
what what are we gonna do here? And you saw
a lot of good things and like you said, Brandon
Johnson up until that injury, Brandon Johnson a guy I
talked about him, you know since training camp. He's a
(44:10):
strong hand catching wide receiver that is physical, can go
catch the ball in the middle of the field, and
he can turn the ball up and get and separate
in space. That's a desirable skill set as well. And
he made plays on special teams. He made tackles. Yep,
he was he wasn't just gunnar that. I mean, yeah,
that's a value, that's a valuable skill.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
And was with the team a year ago, so knows
the system, knows what's expected at him. Caught nineteen passes
for Denver a couple of years ago, has started three
games in the NFL, and so you know he has
that on his on his resume. And then you know,
you talk about a guy like, you know, Robert Woods,
you talk about receptions on your resume. This guy's got
six hundred and eighty three of them, you know, and
(44:53):
he plays a physical brand of football, which is Steelers
like a willing blocker. Uh So, if it comes down
to those three guys for one spot, Keyshawn Williams, Robert Woods,
and Brandon Johnson, it's gonna be an interesting decision. Or
if it comes out of those three guys versus a
ninth offensive lineman or a fifth in side linebacker, it's
(45:15):
gonna be fascinating stuff. By this time tomorrow, we'll know,
although we'll also be waiting on the waiver wire process,
which ends at noon tomorrow just as our show is ending.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
So lots to get to max.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It's been a fun exercise and it all leads up
to this, there are gonna be so we have sixty
three guys right now. By our account, you have to
get down to fifty three and then start putting together
the practice squad. There're gonna be some uneasy moments for
a number of guys between now and four o'clock and
then potentially between four o'clock and noon tomorrow. So we
(45:52):
hope those guys can hold it together. It's been fun
talking about this, Max, and look forward to the release
of the fifty three man today at four o'clock.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Can't wait for it and can't wait to dissect this
and see what decisions were made, and you know, to
see how this twenty twenty five Steelers teams is gonna
is gonna take shape. It's gonna be really fun. And
like I said, the journey begins.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It begins, Max, always fun going on the journey with you,
my friend. I appreciate it. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks
to Justin Miller for producing in our I Heart Studio.
I'm Rob King with Max Starts. We thank you for
listening to the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store. Here on the Steelers Audio
network
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